Marion City Council on Oct. 9 approved a preliminary site-development plan allowing Linn County Rural Electric Cooperative (REC) to expand its pole yard on property west of Highway 13 and north of 20 Ninth Avenue, contingent on a final landscape plan with elevations and coordination with city staff and future review by the Planning and Zoning Commission and council.

The plan calls for phased work: an immediate pole-yard expansion and driveway across an existing drainage feature, a possible future operations building, and a substation that REC officials said is contingent on outside demand from data center/developer needs. Linn County REC representative Terry Sullivan and project engineer Trent Schnorr described screening and phasing plans during the public hearing.

Why it matters: the site sits at a primary corridor into Marion. Council members and staff pressed REC to provide clearer commitments on landscaping, fencing and the likely timing and placement of a future substation and building so the expansion does not detract from the city’s gateway appearance.

REC described mitigation already included in the plan: an eight‑foot ornamental steel fence with masonry columns and a row of arborvitae planted behind the fence along 20 Ninth Avenue and Highway 13 to provide screening for the pole yard. Sullivan said the pole stacks themselves are “about four to five feet high” and that the trees were selected to reach roughly 15 feet when mature to improve screening. He told council the pole yard is the immediate need, the operations building is likely several years out, and the substation is dependent on whether an outside customer (identified as Involta/ARC in the presentation discussion) requests additional capacity.

Council members asked for firm timelines and enforceable landscaping commitments. City staff recommended conditioning final approval on submission of a detailed landscape plan with elevations and on-site placement reviewed with staff, and that any future building or substation would return to planning and council for review. Council amended the approval to include those conditions; after the amendment passed the preliminary site plan passed.

Council and staff discussion also addressed alternative substation locations within the REC parcel and the need to ensure planting is maintained. City staff said final approval documents can require installation deadlines and ongoing maintenance obligations so the approved screening is delivered and sustained.

Approved action: Resolution No. 32,592 approving the preliminary site development plan for Linn County REC’s pole yard expansion, amended to require submittal of a final landscape plan with elevations and on-site placement in coordination with city staff and subject to Planning and Zoning Commission and City Council approval for future phases.

REC representatives said phase 1 (pole yard and driveway) is the immediate priority and that the building and substation remain contingent on either REC’s operational needs or external customer demand; staff and council asked REC to provide final landscape documentation before construction permits will be issued.